I
was sitting at a poetry reading in Colorado Springs with my friend
Jonathan Martin.
It was just after the U.S. attacked Afganistan following the terrorist
attacks on The World Trade Center in New York. There was a lot of
anger and a lot of politicizing in these "poems" and I
realized, whether I agreed with them or not, that my own opinions
and thoughts about the situation were hardly unique.

Basically
there were two sides. I was on one with many others. And there were
plenty of folks on the other side. None of us had a unique viewpoint.

But
that doesn't diminish our viewpoint. Or our dreams or aspirations.
Just the fact that we have our feelings and thoughts and opinions
and dreams makes them important because God created us to have these
things.

So
what if others share our viewpoint? We should always cherish what
God has given us inside. When we stop doing that, we fail as human
beings.